Geely had everything to dominate Europe by 2010. Why did it wait?

Long before BYD, Chery, or Xpeng, Geely already had a recognized brand, engineers, and factories in Europe thanks to the acquisition of Volvo.

In 2010, Geely made a masterstroke. For $1.8 billion, the Chinese manufacturer acquired Volvo Cars from Ford. This was not the first Chinese acquisition of a European car brand – Nanjing Automobile had acquired MG in 2005 before being absorbed by SAIC in 2007 – but this operation clearly changed the scale. MG was a shell of a company, whereas Geely took hold of a global premium brand, its know-how, its engineers, and a true industrial presence in Europe. Sixteen years later, the Chinese automotive giant seems to have only just begun to fully exploit this incredible head start.

On paper, the highway was wide open.

However, there was no question of simply imagining importing low-cost Chinese cars to manufacture them in expensive European factories. Geely’s advantage lay elsewhere: having local engineering early on, shared platforms, industrial tools, and a knowledge of the European market that its Chinese competitors would take years to acquire.

The Volvo factory in Ghent perfectly symbolizes this opportunity. As early as 2018, Volvo announced that it would produce Lynk & Co vehicles there, taking advantage of the economies of scale offered by the common CMA platform.

But Geely chose a different strategy. Rather than immediately transforming this advantage into a massive commercial offensive, the group developed Volvo, launched Lynk & Co, Polestar, and then Zeekr, diversifying its positions. An ambitious strategy, but complex and ultimately quite distant from a conquest of the European market through volume.

Meanwhile, BYD, Chery, and other Chinese manufacturers have accelerated.

Geely now seems determined to make up for lost time. Its project with Ford involves the production of Geely electric models in Valencia, Spain, starting in 2028.

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The paradox remains: Geely possessed almost all the main building blocks necessary to conquer the European automotive market before most of its Chinese competitors. It may have simply lacked the will to assemble them for a long time.